Paychex share price today

Paychex, Inc.'s share price was $118.85 at the close on 4 November 2026. It has been stalling near its high for 5 weeks. That is 14.8% above its average price over the last 200 trading days. Over the past 13 weeks it has done worse than the S&P 500, and it has been behind for 2 weeks running.

A share price tends to move through four phases: moving sideways (stage 1), rising (stage 2), stalling near a high (stage 3) and falling (stage 4). Today Paychex, Inc. is in stage 3. The phase helps read everything below.

In the last 52 weeks it traded between $86 and $127, and at that close it sat 80% of the way up from that low.

Over the last 10 years the share price moved +94% while the S&P 500 moved +261%, so it is behind the index over that whole period. It was last ahead over 13 weeks in the week of 23 October 2026. The chart above shows the 13-week comparison for every week.

This page treats a rise as over when the price closes below its 200-day average on two Fridays in a row.

Paychex, Inc. paid $4.54 per share over the last four reported quarters. The most recent declaration was $1.19 for Aug 2026. At today's price of $118.85 that is a yield of 3.82%, based on dividends already paid, not a forecast.

A dividend is cash paid out for each share. The 12-month total is the four most recent quarters added together.

Paychex is on 3 of our US lists: Nasdaq 100 companies, S&P 500 companies and US tech stocks.

Paychex, Inc. earned $430 M of net profit in the Aug 2026 quarter, +12.0% on the same quarter a year earlier. That is the 3rd quarter in a row of profit growth. Full-year FY26 profit was $1.8 B. Over 4 years profit has grown 6.0% a year on average. That is 26.4% of the quarter's revenue.

Net profit is what is left after every cost, interest and tax. Earnings per share, dividends and book value all grow from it.

The same quarter a year earlier earned $384 M.

For the full year, FY26 profit was $1.8 B (+6.2% on the year before).

Why profit moved: revenue changed +5.9% on a year earlier and the margin moved +1.8 percentage points. Sales did the work, and the margin was about flat.

On average over the last four quarters, profit changed +14.3% and revenue +14.2%. Profit and revenue are moving at about the same pace.

Paychex, Inc. reported $1.6 B of revenue in the Aug 2026 quarter, +5.9% on the same quarter a year earlier. That is the 12th quarter in a row with growth on the year before. Over 4 years it has grown 9.0% a year on average. The last full year, FY26, came in at $6.5 B.

Revenue is everything the company billed its customers in the period.

The last four reported quarters add to $6.6 B.

FY26 revenue was $6.5 B, +16.9% on the year before.

Recent pace: the last four quarters grew +14.2% on average, against 9.0% a year over the longer run, so this year is growing faster than its own long-run rate.

Is growth speeding up? Revenue over the last 12 months grew +14.0%, against +11.5% a year over the last 8 quarters (stabilising); profit over the last 12 months grew +11.9%, against +3.1% a year (accelerating).

Paychex, Inc.'s operating margin was 38.5% in the Aug 2026 quarter, 1.8 percentage points higher than the same quarter a year ago. Across 5 years it has been between 39.5% and 41.8%. The latest quarter is below every full year in that period.

Operating margin is what is left from every $100 of sales after the costs of running the business, before interest and tax. It shows pricing power and cost control.

Why the margin moved: operating margin changed +1.8 percentage points on the year while gross margin changed +0.5 points. So the gain came mostly from costs below the gross margin, such as staff and overheads, measured against sales.

Over the last 3 years, 124% of Paychex, Inc.'s reported profit came in as cash from its operations, so the profit is backed by cash. In FY26 it brought in $2.6 B of operating cash against $1.8 B of profit. After $235 M of spending on assets, $2.3 B was left over as free cash.

The profit and loss account shows what was earned. The cash-flow statement shows the cash that actually came in. Comparing operating cash flow with profit is one of the best checks that a profit is real.

Cash-flow figures here are yearly, because quarterly cash statements are not published, so this section changes once a year.

Why: the cash figure is clear, but the day counts behind it are not in our data, so we show it without guessing the reason.

What to look at next: the main use of cash is spending on assets. The next section checks what that spending is building.

Paychex, Inc. does not report the customer, stock and supplier day counts a cash cycle needs, so this section looks at its spending on assets instead. It spent $588 M on assets over the last 3 years. Averaged over those years that is 3.0% of FY26 revenue a year.

Working capital is the cash tied up between paying suppliers and getting paid. Debtor days: how long customers take to pay. Inventory days: how long stock sits. The cash cycle: the whole loop, in days of sales.

Nothing is estimated in place of the missing day counts, so no cash-cycle chart is drawn.

Spending on assets: $588 M over the last 3 years.

In short: the cash is going into new capacity, not getting stuck in the daily cycle. The question is whether the new capacity earns.

Paychex, Inc.'s P/E is 23.6×, near the low end of its own history: it has been lower only 15% of the time. Its usual P/E (the middle reading) is 27.4×, over 4.4 years of weekly prices. This compares the share price with the company’s own past. It does not say what the business is worth.

P/E is the share price divided by a year's profit per share: how many dollars the market pays for each dollar of yearly profit.